The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday July 17.

Chinese industrial profits were down by 14% in January-February compared with a year ago, marking the biggest fall since 2011. The data paints a worrying picture while the negative economic impact from China’s deleveraging activities in 2018, as well the bitter US-China trade war, continue to take a heavy toll on major industrial sectors.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday December 11.

The gap between scrap and iron ore prices is damaging the competitiveness of scrap-based long steel, the International Rebar Exporters & Producers Assn (Irepas) said this week.

Steel billet prices in the global markets went down slightly or remained stable, except in Southeast Asia, during the working week from Monday February 2 to Friday February 9.

The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission has been given an extension of two months to conclude an investigation into imports of hot dip galvanised (HDG) steel from India and Vietnam.

The downtrend in the global billet market continued over the past week due to weak demand, except in China, in line with the weakening Turkish scrap import market.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are split into two camps this morning, Monday December 4. Gains are being seen in nickel (1.1%), tin (0.5%) and copper, which is up by 0.6% at $6,857 per tonne, while the rest are in negative territory: zinc (-0.8%), aluminium (-0.4%) and lead (-0.2%).

Editor Vera Blei looks at the main news covered by Steel First over the past week.

Base metals prices are down across the board by an average of 0.4% on the London Metal Exchange this morning, Thursday September 28. Volume has been average with 6,139 lots traded as of 06:44 BST.